I remember that I had this issue with VM when I first tried to use it. It seems to me that the use of a programmer is an advanced feature. Perhaps that menu could be hidden?

Perhaps when you install the default is "Basic" mode but "Advanced" can be selected in the VM settings?

OR a section (tab) of VM settings called "Advanced" that enable these options.

This would prevent inadvertent use of the "Programmer" menus. As I recall there are a couple of other menu items that can cause problems but I can't remember them right now. Been quite a few months since I've worked on my Arduino projects

1) You say upload works okay from arduino ide on COM3, COM5. The avrisp doesn't have a COM port so that means normal serial upload is being used in arduino ide. What happens if you click "File>Upload using programmer" in the arduino ide?

Answer: I am using USB=COM method. I get: avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb" when I upload using programmer. So there is the problem. Can’t visual micro use USB=COM?

2) Preferences.txt might be storing the default or last used programmer but it might not actually be uploading using a programmer. Both arduino and visual micro use an avr program called avrdude.exe to upload so we would expect the same results in both apps. Please untick "Tools>Upload using programmer" in Visual Micro and try your upload again.

Answer: Yes that fixed it! How did I miss that check/unchecked within your instruction. I thought I read everything. I never checked it. You better verify your installer defaults are not set with the programmer uploading=true.

Never are instructions too simple. Simple and concise instructions are always best so thank you very much.

All and all I must complement you and your team for such a fine job Visual Micro is very fast vs the Arduino IDE.

The avrisp upload is working okay for me but reading your answers again I have some questions?

1) You say upload works okay from arduino ide on COM3, COM5. The avrisp doesn't have a COM port so that means normal serial upload is being used in arduino ide. What happens if you click "File>Upload using programmer" in the arduino ide?

2) Preferences.txt might be storing the default or last used programmer but it might not actually be uploading using a programmer. Both arduino and visual micro use an avr program called avrdude.exe to upload so we would expect the same results in both apps. Please untick "Tools>Upload using programmer" in Visual Micro and try your upload again.

3) My understanding is that FTDI drivers are used to map USB to pc serial ports which provides COM1,2,3 etc. These drivers provide normal arduino serial upload (via arduino usb port) and are not the drivers used by an external avrispII programmer which connects to the 6 pin ICSP header on an arduino board. Do you have a programmer connected to the ICSP port on the arduino or are you expecting upload using the normal arduno usb port?

In the meantime you might not know about the "External Editor" checkbox in arduino ide preferences.

Switching the checkbox "on" allows the same sketch to be loaded in both arduino and visual studio at the same time. Arduino will be in readonly mode but arduino will auto detect changes made in vs when you click upload.

avrdude: usbdev_open(): did not find any USB device "usb"Aug 14th, 2012 at 11:00pm

Admin Note: If you have ticked "Tools>Upload using programmer" and have not purchased a special hardware programmer then you should un-tick the menu item for normal Arduino serial/usb upload (when you press F5 or "Debug>Start"). This thread will not apply to you

Good Evening,

The problem is no usb transfer 'F5.

OS is Windows 7 sp1, VS2010 setup is programmer = AVRISP mkII. Previously, I ran Arduino 101 no problems and transferring worked well but not with VS2010.